The marketplace has seen the proliferation of many types of personal, hand-held, electronic devices over the last decade or so. Such devices are typically thin and tablet-shaped, and include the popular electronic readers (so-called “e-readers”), such as the Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook®, and the Sony eReader®. Other similar devices include new versions of tablet computers such as the Apple iPad®, Google Android®, and many other related devices in an ever-expanding market. A primary and very popular use for these types of personal electronic devices is to display and read electronic books in lieu of a traditional bound, typeset book. In addition, most of these types of devices also support the display and viewing of various other types of media; e.g., photos, web pages, video, etc.
The manufacturers of such personal, hand-held, electronic devices generally try to design them to be fairly thin and relatively light-weight so that users are not overly burdened to store, carry, and hold the devices. Nevertheless, a typical user may spend many hours reading in a given setting, such as relaxing to read while in a reclining chair or bed, and often finds it uncomfortable to have to grip the device over such a long period of time due to fatigue or even cramping. In addition, users often find themselves needing to do other things; e.g., moving around, getting a cup of coffee, etc.; and can find themselves inadvertently fumbling with their hand-held tablet-shaped device and/or dropping the device altogether. Similarly, if a user chooses to try and hold such a device without gripping it, and instead merely balance it on the user's hand(s), that can prove to be taxing on a user over an extended period of time as well.
There are devices known for assisting a user in the holding of a book, a clipboard, and the like, in settings where there is no readily available platform such as a podium or table to conveniently set down the book or clipboard while reading from it. Many of those solutions are directed to detachably mounting the book or tablet-shaped item onto some sort of fixed structure to free a user's hands during use. In other solutions that are specifically directed to a traditional book, a strap is provided along the spine of the book for a user to slip his or her hand through such that the spine of the book rests in the palm of the user hand while the strap exerts pressure on the back side of the user's hand to allow the user to hold the book without much effort. This latter solution is somewhat impractical to employ for a personal, hand-held, tablet-shaped electronic device, and the security of the user's hold on the device is not optimum, especially when one considers the monetary investment made to obtain the electronic device in the first place.